Places of Memory

Memorials and memorable places are an essential part of a person’s life. Some of them become memorable ones unofficially. Sometimes they become a core that determines a person’s character. Sometimes these places lose their sacral meaning, then power turning into a product that promotes territory. Is it peculiar of our country only?Our attitude to monuments, symbols and signs of the past shows our attitude to our inner memory. It is not by accident that the future of historic monuments and memorable places is a subject to national and even international discussions which allows to value the social meaning of various past events as well as contemporary policy of memory that uses the past to solve political problems of the present. In the March issue we would like to study the state of things with creation (fixation), preservation and usage of such places.The materials may concern the following:• Places of memory as a national property and heritage (including those of questionable, tragic moments of the national past);• ‘Historical monument’, ‘places of memory’, ‘memorial’: meaning and correlation of these notions in life. ‘Museum policy’ and its influence on historic researches and activities of memorials, museums and similar institutes;• Deciding to create, to preserve or to destroy memorable places and historic monuments, pros and contras, examples;• Projects on perpetuation of tragic vents of the national history (GULAG and other repressive and punitive instruments, fields of action etc.)• Responsibility for the past, its representation in museum, excursion and memorial activities;• Public organizations dealing with the past and the memory – their history, work experience, outlook in Russia and other countries;• ‘Oral’ history, national memory, unofficial places of memory, their role in the life of a local community, national archives;• Journalistic and the past: peculiarities of presentation of the past in mass media.

You are welcome to send your materials; the editors correspond with the authors. The deadline to present your works is 15th February 2010. You may write to parallel60@bk.ru or to the presenter of the rubric, Mikhail Nemtsev (nemtsev.m@gmail.com/)